The Gift of
Growth
Story: Morgan Stout | Photography: Allison Duda
College is where students grow. Some master the Pythagorean Theorem, and others become experts in the Operant Conditioning Theory. Some gain the confidence to speak up; others gain the wisdom to listen. Some learn how to navigate foreign countries while others learn how to navigate the laundry room. College isn’t a means to an end. It’s an experience—one that shapes you into the person you’re destined to be. For our students, Saint Vincent College is like tilled soil, ready for planting roots and growing up.
Benedictines believe in sowing seeds that will develop into trees whose shade they may never sit beneath, trusting that their work will shelter the generations that follow. In the same way, the many who provide scholarships and special funding for our students are nurturing a future they may never personally see, but one that will flourish because of their generosity. We’re proud of the way our Bearcats have embraced these opportunities and thankful for the many friends who have provided a way for them to grow.
Taking Root
Benedek Szilika
A junior business major, Benedek (Beni) Szilika’s very first class at Saint Vincent was Introduction to Entrepreneurship. He is Hungarian, and the professor he had for the class is Scottish. So not only did he have to overcome a language barrier, but also his professor’s thick accent. He was grateful when Professor Martin Kerr announced to all the students, “If you don’t understand me, let me know. I can repeat everything.”
Beni learned more than just English from Kerr. He learned that Saint Vincent professors are experts in their fields, willing to share wisdom after class, and that Saint Vincent students are serious scholars, excited about collaborating. He also learned how to build a business plan, something he believes will be useful if his idea for a string of airport gyms becomes a reality.
An extrovert by nature, Beni had no trouble making friends. He joined Campus Ministry, quickly becoming their go-to student worker—brushing snow off the monks’ cars, making leather book covers with Father Thomas More Sikora, O.S.B., S’91, and playing drums for the Festival of Praise services. He also joined the College’s Activities Programming Board as a junior team leader, planning events such as The Voice and bingo. Beni loves calling the numbers and doesn’t mind the good-natured joking from students when he mispronounces them. In fact, he likes it. Recently, when another student took over announcing, members of the 200-plus audience made it clear they missed Beni at the mic, so he jumped onstage to hearty applause for the last round. Beni acknowledges that moment as the one when he felt most welcomed. Now the Student Government Association’s executive vice president for events, Beni enjoys living out the Benedictine principle of hospitality alongside the community he calls home. “Everyone is so welcoming and understanding,” he points out. “They really live by The Rule.”
Beni hails from Benedictine High School of Pannonhalma, a school at Pannonhalma Archabbey in Hungary, that practices the Benedictine, liberal arts tradition, so Saint Vincent felt like an extension of his earlier education. He is here thanks to a student exchange program generously supported by the Rossin Foundation and the Stephans family.
Labeled “enemies of the people,” Peter Stephans’s family lived in communist Hungary in the 1950s. With his father imprisoned, his only hope for graduating high school was with a Benedictine boarding school connected to Pannonhalma Abbey. His experiences there inspired his 2022 commencement speech to Saint Vincent graduates, during which he said, “My Benedictine education made me who I am today.”
Stephans’s remarks resonate with Beni, who believes a liberal arts education gives you a solid foundation for life. With additional support from Saint Vincent, Beni has decided to stay and graduate from the College even though his original plan was to only stay one year. Grateful for the Stephans family’s generosity, he is making apromotional video for students back at his high school to encourage them to apply for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Ready to Bloom
Kayla McClucas
“How would you like to go to Brazil?” The assistant director of Student Academic Success, Taiya Karpinski, C’20, G’21, posed this to a top student she advises. Kayla McClucas, a psychology major, had never dreamed that she would have an opportunity like this. A first-generation student, Kayla lives with her grandma in Berlin, Pennsylvania, and had never traveled outside the state, let alone outside the country. In fact, until her senior year in high school, she hadn’t even considered attending college.
Knowing Kayla’s head for science and heart for people, her high school science teacher encouraged her to investigate a major in psychology, but it wasn’t until Kayla had to do a school project researching colleges that she considered applying. Visiting Saint Vincent’s beautiful campus and experiencing the welcoming community made the choice an easy one. A junior this year, Kayla has taken advantage of every opportunity the Student Academic Success Office has offered, including this mission trip.
Kayla received funds set aside by the Saint Vincent Archabbey for students connected with the Student Academic Success Office for mission trip travel. Since the early 2000s, SVC students have traveled to Brazil to partner with the São Bento Abbey to minister to people living in Jundiaí, São Paulo, for roughly a week each summer. Alongside the Sisters of Congregação das Missionárias de Cristo, they serve food, educate children, and minister to poverty-stricken families. Their goal is to be Christ to others through mission work as well as to experience Christ through those whom they serve.
Going on the mission trip was life changing for Kayla. She visited people in homes smaller than her dorm room, milled flour for fresh bread, toured a homeless shelter built by hand, learned a little Portuguese, and ate avocados the size of footballs. But the most memorable part of her trip was the children.
“All they wanted was love,” she says. “I didn’t have to give them anything or look a special way. It was just about being there.”
The group formed close bonds with the kids, serving lunch, attending classes together, dancing, singing, praying, and playing a lot of pega pega—their version of tag.
“Our presence was enough for them,” she says.
The children’s joy was infectious. Instead of buying souvenirs on their last night, the group bought toys for the children and displayed them while they were at recess. “When they came in,” Kayla says, “the room got brighter, and I was like, ‘This is my God moment,’ and we just played and played.”
For Kayla, the trip did more than inspire a profoundly grateful mindset. Experiencing Christ through missions inspired a new calling to clinical pediatric neuropsychology, in the hopes she can help children overcome mental health challenges and make stronger relational connections.
As the group said their goodbyes, Kayla picked up David, her best buddy all week. “I love you,” he whispered to her in English.
“It was wonderful,” she recalls. “I can’t imagine my life without going on this trip.”
Branching Out
Lilly Houle
Her bowling coach is baffled by this, but sophomore Lilly Houle often tells him how much she loves the rain. Growing up in Las Vegas in the middle of a desert, Lilly can’t get enough of it—that and all the green: the trees, the grass, the fields. Lilly began her college career in Oklahoma, roughly 980 miles from her home in Nevada, but after her freshman year, when she decided to transfer to Saint Vincent, the distance got even greater. She almost didn’t come because of the expense, but her mom was optimistic. “I think the East Coast will be great for you. There’s always a way,” she told her daughter.
When Lilly received her Saint Vincent acceptance letter, she discovered she’d been named the Paul W. and Dorothy McConnaughey Scholar, earning a $15,000 annual award for excellence in the sciences and mathematics. The scholarship was created by Saint Vincent alumnus Paul McConnaughey, a 1938 chemistry graduate who worked as a chemist for Mine Safety Appliances Company, and it is now supported by his daughter, Janet Koontz.
“The scholarship was the deciding factor for me,” Lilly says. She already loved the campus and had multiple positive conversations with the bowling coach. A math major, Lilly says she loves numbers and is thinking about a career as a sports statistician or data analyst. But right now, she’s focused on her math courses and bowling.
Nationally ranked in two different coaches’ polls, the Bearcat Bowling team is happy to have Lilly on board. Coach Jeff Zidek, C’90, says, “When you try to recruit someone from 2,000 miles away, you really need to believe you are making the right call not only for your team, but for the individual as well, since it's such a life-changing move. Lilly has thrived here at Saint Vincent, both academically and athletically.”
Her math professor, Dr. Daniele Arcara, concurs. After teaching Lilly in Calculus III last semester, he commended her for her hard work, preparation, performance on exams, and ability to collaborate with others.
A perfect candidate for the McConnaughey Scholarship, Lilly can’t say enough about how much she loves Saint Vincent. “I’m incredibly grateful to have [the scholarship] because this experience is like no other,” she says. “If you asked me two years ago if I would expect to be here, I’d say ‘no way,’ but it is so amazing to be here.”